Nail Polish And Regrets
by xflyingxwithoutxwingsx
Summary: A year has passed, and the Jones twins are trying to go on with their lives, but the twin of Carly's lost lover keeps drawing her back in. Previously You, With The Sad Eyes. I'm still here!
1. A Date To Forget

A/N: This is my first House of Wax story, so..yeah. Cut me some slack if it sucks a bit. Just an idea that popped into my head. The song in this parcticular chapter is "Heavily Broken" by the Veronicas. In this, a year has passed, and now Carly and Nick are living together in a house in New York.

You, With The Sad Eyes

Chapter One

_"Every day I sit here waiting_

_Every day just seems so long_

_And now I've had enough of all the hating_

_Do we even care? It's so unfair.._

_Any day it'll all be over_

_Every day there's nothing new_

_And I just try to find some hope to try and hold onto_

_But it starts again..it'll never end.."_

For the fifteenth time in a row, a surprisingly short index finger reached out and stretched a bit, pressing the 'snooze' button on a regular old alarm clock. The music stopped, and Carly Jones sat up in her bed, yawning slightly. She ruffled her curly brown locks, messing them up past the form of 'bed head', just for laughs. She turned and, on impulse, looked at what the date was. Her heart skipped a beat, while the music from her alarm clock came on again.

_"I'm heavily broken and I don't know what to do_

_Can't you see that I'm choking and I can't even move_

_When there's nothing left to say_

_What can you do?_

_I'm heavily broken_

_And there's nothing I can do."_

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at the little white square, and the two numbers inside of it, boldly there, as if challenging her to doubt what the day was. November 10th. The tears started to spill from her eyes, and soon Carly found herself shaking, reliving something she never wanted to remember.

_"Almost giving up on trying_

_Almost heading for a fall_

_And now my mind is screaming out_

_I've got to keep on fighting_

_But then again, it doesn't end."_

** Flashback **

**"And it's obvious Dalton still has a crush on you, too."**

**"That's three times today, you're an asshole."**

**"But I'm still your favorite asshole, right?"**

**"Always."**

End Flashback

Nick Jones appeared in the doorway of his twin's bedroom, and saw her crying, and immedietely knew what was wrong. He headed to her bedside, and kneeled there, flattening down the hair he let grow out in the past year. "Carly.."

But as Nick made a move to touch her arm, Carly shrunk away, drawing her knees, still covered with her flowered fleece blanket, up to her chest. She willed herself to stop crying, and it seemed to work, for the moment. "Nick..."

The two drew each other into their arms, and for a moment, they just stayed there, clinging to each other for dear life. The one year anniversary of the House of Wax had come around, and there was absolutely nothing Carly was planning to do to bring herself out of a depressed funk. This was one day she just wanted to lay there and cry her eyes out, and Nick couldn't say anything about it.

Finally, the two let go of each other, and they sat there in silence for a moment, while the music continued.

_"I'm heavily broken and I don't know what to do_

_Can't you see that I'm choking_

_And I can't even move?_

_When there's nothing left to say_

_What can you do?_

_I'm heavily broken and I there's nothing I can do."_

Without a word, Nick reached over and slammed his fist down on the alarm clock, crushing it and quieting it instantly.

"Nick.."

Nick merely shook his head and got up off his knees, refusing to give in to the sadness threatening to envelop him. He silently made his way out of Carly's room, hitting the wall in the hallway openhanded, swearing loudly, yelling a few things. Carly wiped at her eyes, but more tears came, and she shook her head, climbing out of bed. With a slight, depressed sigh, she gathered up her clothes, and got into the shower, preparing to just get back into a new pair of pajamas, settle onto the couch, pop in the video from Dalton's video camera, and cry her eyes out.

Twenty minutes or so later, Carly was seated on the couch in the living room of the house, staring at the unmarked tape in her hands. A few soft strands of brown hair fell into her eyes, but she didn't particularly care. For a moment, she half considered calling up InStyle and telling them that she would be showing up today, instead of the lie she had told them the night before, knowing she would've been a mess the next day and would not want to work. Then, she shook her head, and hummed aloud, staring at the tape.

"Feels like I'm drowning

I'm screaming for air

Louder I'm crying and you don't even care."

A knock at the front door startled her, and Carly raised one eyebrow through her tears, wondering who could possibly be there to disturb her and her brother. She set the tape down on an end table, and got up, dusting off her shorts, and wiping at her eyes until she was sure nothing was around her eyes but puffiness and redness. She headed over to the door, and flung it wide open, half-expecting to see her mother standing there with a box of tissues and an apple pie. But what she saw startled her even more, and made her second guess her sanity.

"Wade?"


	2. What Really Happened?

The tears started to fall down Carly's cheeks again as memories came back to her, right there in the doorway of her house.

** Flashback **

**"Why don't you ever make me that pretty, Carly?"**

**---**

**"Wade..wake up. There's something outside."**

**"It's probably the serial killers or something."**

**---**

**"Hey, look, a little wax doggie..what up, dog?"**

** End Flashbacks **

Now she opened her eyes, staring at the form of her dead boyfriend in her doorway. That was it. She had lost it completely. Maybe she had fallen asleep on the couch and started dreaming. That was it. She slapped herself, and the man in the doorway really didn't seem too surprised.

"Who the hell are you?"

Carly spat the words at him, wanting to slam the door, but that would only bring Nick in, and she didn't need him checking on her at this particular moment.

But the Wade lookalike smiled a bit, shoving his hands casually into his pockets. Something flickered in his eyes - was it pain, maybe?

"Aiden. Aiden Samuels."

Then Carly froze, and she understood.

"But he never...you can't be...he would've told me!"

Aiden smiled a little sadly.

"Carly Jones. Wade was very open with you, wasn't he? He just forgot to mention the fact that he had a twin brother."

Carly's mind started to spin, and she put a hand to her temple. This was all way too much for her right now.

"If you're Wade's twin...then..what do you want?"

"I want to know what happened to Wade. Really. None of that bullshit you fed everyone else." She noted a slight Southern accent in his voice that may have sounded farmiliar. Maybe Wade's?

Only the police knew what had really happened in Ambrose, besides Carly and Nick. They had agreed to keep the information quiet, and it stayed off the news. Nick had told their parents, as well as everyone else, that they had been camping before the game, and when they had woken up, everyone else was gone. As the story went, they had searched for hours and hours for their friends, but to no avail. Finally, they had found Paige and Blake's bodies in a roadkill pit, but Dalton and Wade were still somehow missing.

"I-I can't."

"Please, Carly. Please. I know that wasn't what happened, otherwise I wouldn't have found you like this, now would I? And I know you would've never given up searching for your friends. Please."

Carly hesitated. She would need Nick to help her, otherwise she'd lose it. But then Aiden observed something else.

"What happened to your finger?"

Carly stared down at her 3/4 of an index finger, and sighed brushing away a few tears with it as if to showcase it. She opened the door a little wider, an invitation in its own.

"I'll tell you what happened if you show me your driver's liscence, prove you're really Wade's twin, and if you swear you won't tell anyone."

Aiden started in the door, and drew out his wallet, flashing a driver's liscence at her. Aiden Samuels was the name printed on it, and it had his face on it. Same birthday as Wade's, same everything as Wade's. Even the same handwriting for his signature. Finally, he shoved the wallet back into his pocket.

"What more proof do you need?"

Carly sighed a bit. "None. Just..wait. I'll get my brother. And then I'll tell you what happened."

"Oh. And I swear not to tell anyone." Aiden seemed almost casual about this. But the pain remained in his eyes, and Carly knew he truly wanted to know what had happened. She nodded to him, and, shutting the door, she hurried back to Nick's room to see if he was still there.


	3. Vivid Memories

"Nick?"

Carly leaned in the doorway of her twin's room, her head tilting slightly.

"Car." Nick's tone was icy as he set the photo album he had been flipping through on his bed. "What?"

"Don't be an asshole to me, Nicholas Carter Jones. Look..will you just come with me, to the living room?"

After a moment of hesitation, Nick nodded and stood up, following his sister back to the living room, where he stopped and stared at the standing Aiden.

"Wade?"

Aiden smiled sadly yet again.

"No such luck."

"Nick. This is Wade's twin brother, Aiden. He wants to know what really happened to Wade and the others."

"Erm...alright. Then we'll tell him. He does have a right to know, I suppose." Nick sat down in his chair, note the word his. Nick sat in that chair, and only Nick.

"Yes. He does." Carly settled herself on the couch, pulling a blanket off the back and wrapping it around herself. She motioned for Aiden to sit, and slowly took a deep breath before beginning to talk.

"I guess it all started the night before the big game...We were just goofing off, having fun, camping out in some clearing after a shortcut Blake had found was blocked off. Then this truck pulled up..and it just kind of sat there, it's brights on. The guys tried to convince whoever it was to turn their lights off..and he only went away when Nick threw a beer bottle at him." Carly cast a look at Nick, then looked at Aiden again.

"That night..I woke up after having this weird dream...and I got out of the tent, going to try and see what it was. I didn't see anything, and Wade woke up and came to herd me back into the tent. The next day, we all woke up late, so everyone was in a hurry. Paige and I smelt something, so we went to go see what it was..and then I fell into this nasty roadkill pit. When the others came to help me out, Wade told us the fan belt on his car was busted. So we were going to stay and just wait for the others to get back from the game, because Wade didn't want to leave his car out there. Then, this guy.." She looked at Nick then, her eyes pleading for his help.

Nick's voice was calm as he started talking. "A guy came by in a truck just like the one that had been at the campsite the night before. Only his headlight wasn't broken. He played a little joke on us, then offered to take Wade to Ambrose. Carly decided to go with them. So, they all three left, and we headed for the campsite to get ready to get moving for the game."

Finally, Carly steadied herself, and looked at Aiden, then continued talking. "The guy..he really creeped me out. He had a knife, and was just really, really creepy. Then he dropped us off where the road washed out...I remember feeling like such a bitch because he had only wanted to help us and we were totally rude. But then we headed for the town, and it was fine. We stopped at the gas station, but no one was there. So we headed up to the church, and walked right in. There was a funeral going on..so we went out. Then we kind of stood outside, and this guy..Bo. He came out and asked us what we wanted. Wade told him we wanted a fan belt. Bo didn't take it very well. Then he came back out after going in angrily..and said he'd help us after the burial was over. So we went to this House of Wax.."

**"It's wax. Like, literally."**

Carly shuddered a bit at the memory. "Wade and I went in, because the door was unlocked...and it was really freaky. Everything...it just seemed so real. Well then I saw this face outside..and Wade went to go check it out." She noticed Aiden tensed a bit at that part. "But he didn't find anything. So we left, and went down to the gas station.

"Bo wasn't there. So we went in, because the door was unlocked, and Wade just wanted to look.. and they didn't have any fifteen inch fan belts. So Wade took a sixteen inch and left the money on the counter, and we went to leave when Bo showed up at the door. He said he had some fifteen inches up at his house, and if we went him, he'd get us one. So we did. He said he'd give us a ride back to where the road was washed out, where Nick and the others were supposed to pick us up. On the way...he told this story, about the woman who had made the House of Wax. Trudy Sinclair. Her and her husband had two sons...and then Trudy got this cist in her brain, and she lost it. Finally, Dr. Sinclair shot himself. The boys were left to fend for themselves. When we got up to the house, Wade and Bo went inside, and I waited in Bo's truck. Finally, Bo came out, but Wade didn't. Wade never showed up. The truck..Bo's truck was the truck from the campsite. That was when everything went downhill. Bo came after me..and he finally caught me. Only then did I realize everything about Ambrose. He took me back to the gas station, by then it was dark, and he turned on loud music...so no one would hear me. Then he strapped me to this hospital bed..and super glued my lips shut."

Nick cleared his throat, and started to talk. "The rest of us ended turning back. There was a lot of traffic, and none of us wanted to wait in that car all day. So we headed back. Then Blake sent me and Dalton to go get Carly and Wade. We went to the end of the washed out road...and we walked from there. We split up when we got there, I went to the gas station and Dalton went to look around other places. When I got to the gas station...Bo came out. He told me he hadn't seen my sister or her boyfriend when I asked..and then he said I could check up at the house. Then..Carly screamed."

Carly sighed a bit, holding out her right index finger, the one that had been filed down. "I had broken the arms of the hospital bed, and was poking my finger through a vent where I could hear Nick and Bo. The bastard saw and cut off the tip of my finger. That's how I got my mouth unglued, from the blood. Then I screamed for Nick. I guess he locked Bo out, because he came to get me, and helped me get out of there. Then we ran from the gas station, and to this hunting store..Nick took a bow and arrow. Then Bo caught us again. We ran from him the rest of the night, and Nick got him with two arrows. Then we hid in his house...and I found the pictures. Bo and Vincent, his brother, were Trudy Sinclair's sons. They had been conjoined at birth, and had to have an experimental surgery done on them to remove Vincent's face from the back of Bo's head. That left Vincent without half of his face." Carly sighed again, before continuing. "We had to go downstairs in the basement to hide from them. We ran a bit, and then...then we found Dalton. They had already killed him, and before that, we had seen Paige and Blake's bodies in Vincent's truck. Dalton was in this machine...and they had already poured wax all over him...it was terrible. Then we started messing with switches...and they found us. A fire started in the basement...and we ran upstairs, only we ended up in the House of Wax. Then..." Carly looked near tears. "That's where we found Wade. He was already covered in wax. Half his face was sliced off. We had to keep going...so we headed to the next room, and then Bo got Nick with a knife..and it all just happened so fast...I beat the hell out of Bo..I killed him...then I ran..."

Nick cleared his throat a bit again, letting his sister know that she didn't have to talk anymore. "Carly ran upstairs. Vincent went after her, and I tried to follow. After a while, I got to them. Vincent and I had a go around the bedroom...this mask..he wore a mask. A wax one. Carly..she pulled the knife out of my leg and stabbed Vincent with it. We all fell through the floor..And Carly and I landed on solid...wax. We dug through the wax walls and managed to get outside before the whole place melted. Then the police found us from all the smoke..."

Aiden, who had been quiet this whole time, finally spoke.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I really am."

Carly was now crying silently, her face in her hands. A year had passed, yes, but the memories were as vivid as ever. What could she do without her friends? She had none now. Nick. That was it. And now Aiden, if you could call him a friend.

Oh, God...the memories...damn those memories. Playing like a film in her mind.

_"When there's nothing left to say...what can you do?_

_I'm heavily broken...and there's nothing I can do."_


	4. Friendship Forming

Two days had passed. In those two days, a lot of things had happened. Carly had quit the internship; it was too much to handle. Nick had gotten a job - at a burger joint, of all places. Carly had dyed her hair blonde. "Now you can just call it your artificial idiocy," Nick had commented, a smirk on his lips. They had gotten a pet. A little black lab named Charlie.

And Aiden was making regular visits.

The silence after Carly had finished the story was an awkward one, but he and Nick had both comforted her when she burst into tears, rubbing her shoulders and telling her it was going to be alright. A few cups of coffee, a bottle of nail polish, and a few friendly hugs later, Aiden was out the door.

But the next day, he returned with a bottle of nail polish remover, a box of Wade's things, and an invitation for coffee. Carly accepted, much to the dismay of her twin, and had a rather fun time. So she was happy when she opened the door on the second day and Aiden was standing there, and offered to help her sort through more of Wade's things. The nail polish remover and blue nail polish went down considerably that day, and the house was slightly deprived of tissue.

The odd thing about Carly was that usually when she was upset or trying not to show her emotions, she did the best on her fingernails. She was careful, cautious, trying to divert her attention to the task at hand. And Aiden caught onto that rather quickly, while Nick never had. It was a nice change. Only Wade had ever noticed.

-----------------

"Carly?" Aiden's voice drafted through the kitchen door and Carly smiled, looking up from the kitchen table where she had been sipping a cup of coffee.

"In here, Aiden!" She answered in a somewhat chirp, feeling rather giddy for some reason. The tall figure entered the room with a confidence that Carly found rather refreshing. She smiled again.

"Hey," This was getting routine, she thought, as he leaned on the table beside her and leaned down to kiss her forehead. She smiled again. That was even getting routine; smiling had been hard for her lately.

"How you feeling, gorgeous?" Carly had soon picked up that terms of endearment from Aiden were just his way of talking - and they went well with his accent. God, that accent. It reminded her of Wade. Of course, for obvious reasons.

"Better. Did Nick let you in?" Carly knew her brother was a little weary of the outsider, but she trusted him, and she didn't see why Nick couldn't, either. It was the protective big brother thing, she knew, and it had only increased after Ambrose, but she didn't know why he just couldn't let her live for once. Couldn't he see how happy she had been the past few days? Isn't that what he wanted, was for her to be happy?

She thought so.

"Yeah, he did. Leaving for work, I think. Your brother's a Mickie Dee's kid, now, huh?" Aiden couldn't help but smirk, sliding his hands in his pockets. God, he was just like Wade.

"Yup." Carly looked thoughtful for a moment. "Aiden, why are you staying here? In New York?"

Aiden's face softened.

"Because. I wrote my parents and told them. I can tell you need someone to lean on, Car, and Nick's just not doing the job right."

Carly's temper flared, and she stood rather quickly, as always when someone hit her sore spot - her brother.

"Don't start, Aiden. You don't know Nick, and you don't know what he's been through, so just don't start."

Aiden seemed a little taken aback, but understanding. He nodded. "Alright, Car, I'm sorry." He reached out and smoothed her honey blonde locks down, giving her a small apologetic smile. His eyes wandered to her hands.

"Working on those nails a lot, huh?"

"Yeah." The small girl gave an uneasy laugh, but brushed the depression off for now. Aiden was here, and she wanted to have a good time.

"So. What say you we get out of this place and go out for lunch? My treat?" She couldn't resist the way his forest green eyes widened and he looked almost pouty. Nick wouldn't approve, but Nick was gone, right? Off flipping burgers. And there was nothing good to eat around the house.. Wade would've liked her to be happy, to go on with life.

"Sure. Let me get dressed." Only then did they both notice she was still in pajamas, and it caused them to laugh.


End file.
